Travel quilting

After reading the column, right off the bolt, by Alison Dea Bolt in the February/March 2009 issue of Quilter’s Newsletter, I think that it must be also be a “special form of patriotism” to visit all the local quilt stores whenever we travel. It not only provides us with more ideas and fabric that we can use in a lifetime. It also serves as a “stimulus package” that might just lead us out of today’s economic woes.

I believe that as long as I have UFO’s, I will never die. As of this date, I should have a lifespan of at least another 40 or 50 years.

So consider it your patriotic duty to visit as many quilt shops as you can while vacationing this year. I certainly plan on doing my part! On this trip I have visited Tomorrow’s Treasures Quilt Shop in Homosassa, FL and Sew Studio in Naples, FL. Both were stores that I will definitely revisit when we come back here next year.

It’s hard to believe, but we only have a few more days left to enjoy the Florida sunshine. We’ll be starting the return trip to New York on Friday, but will ease back into “our real world” gradually.

We leave Homossasa, FL on Friday morning and drive to Savannah, GA for a 2 day, 3 night stay. We stopped in Savannah on the way from Syracuse, NY to Old Cypress, FL and enjoyed a guided tram tour of Savannah’s 21 historic squares. This coming weekend we plan on taking a self guided walking tour to visit some of these sites “up close and personal”.

Monday we will be heading to Pittsboro NC for a 2-day visit with our son and his family. The grandkids are planning on serving us a dinner complete with the pomp and circumstance of fine restaurant dinning. Can’t wait!

Then back to Syracuse, where we are looking forward to enjoying what remains of winter. Our hope is that any remaining snow storms will wait until we have the RV safely parked in our driveway.

On the trip back to snow country, I should have plenty of time to finish the Fall/Winter Reversible Bell Pull from The Stash Store. (Jan 28 post) The Winter side is about 75% complete. I appliquéd the wool pieces with the buttonhole stitch using the technique described in the directions that came with the kit:

The needle is inserted at the outside of the appliqué piece and comes up at a point parallel and even to the previous stitch. The result: the stitch length is easier to control and is uniform.

Genie Barnes, a founding member of the Thumbstall Quilt Guild Skaneateles NY, recently gave a presentation to the Guild on Color When Choosing Fabric for a Quilt. One of the many tips she also gave us was that you should always bring a Design Wall with you when traveling. This idea really hit home because my husband and I were planning a two-month trip to Florida in January and February.

Of course I immediately went home and told Tom that I needed to have a Design Wall in our camper. He shook his head and I could just see him trying to picture my 7-foot square Design Wall in our 28-foot camper! What I had in mind was a 3-foot square piece of flannel that could be put up as needed with a Velcro strip. The Design Wall seems to be working out just fine. It is pictured here with the Fall/Winter Weekenders Reversible Bell Pull from The Stash Store.

About Me

I began to quilt about 13 years ago with a very basic quilting course taught at a local quilt shop, Patchwork Plus. Before that, I had talked about quilting, read about it, studied techniques and even bought some tools, but I was hesitant to get started.